Austin, Ruth, 1884-1990.

Ruth Austin (1884-1990) was a settlement house administrator and social reformer. Born in New York, Ruth Austin came to Chicago around 1900 to study at the Chicago Kindergarten Institute. In 1910, she returned to New York to become head resident of the Lenox Hill Settlement in New York City. There she taught English to working class immigrant women, a vocation she continued when she returned to Chicago in 1913. In 1914, she became head resident of Gads Hill Center, a Presbyterian settlement house in the Pilsen neighborhood. Upon retiring from Gads Hill in 1946, Austin directed an experimental school for adolescents with learning disabilities at Hull-House until 1949.